5/1     10 new countries join the EU.  8 are former Soviet states.
        http://sg.news.yahoo.com/040430/1/3jwxl.html
        I know the public face is that the EU will turn all the European
        countries into a first world super power but I see it differently.
        I see it as merely staving off the inevitable collapse of the western
        European powers.  If the US economy looked like any of the major
        European economies, we'd already have voted all the incumbents from
        both parties out of office.  For example, Germany has about 10.5%
        unemployment right now.  We have about half that.  And Israel, which
        has always had a weak economy and especially so since the most recent
        war, has an unemployment rate just slightly worse than Germany at
        about 11%.  France has allowed approx. 6 million Arabs into their
        country of 25 million people yet has made no effort to integrate these
        people into society and continues to allow more.  Britain is following
        the same path.  Germany's retirement system is no longer sustainable.
        France is almost in the same position as Germany.  And these are the
        three strongest and best run countries in Europe.  It's all downhill
        from there.  I predict economic collapse leading to anarchy in most of
        Europe by 2025, at the latest, if current economic and social trends
        continue.
        \_ Maybe they ll join up with Russia to form the Socialist Republics
           of Eurasia, and try to stave off the inevitable by whoring out
           natural resources for a few years.
        \_ Only three were former soviet states.
        \_ the only reason the us unemployment is so low is we artifically
           lower the numbers by not counting people who have been unemployed
           for over 6 months, nor do we count people who quit their jobs and
           can't find another one, or contracters who can't find contracts.
        \_ Between 20 and 40 % of children in France
           under 10 are Muslim.  The Islamicists breed like rabbits.
        \_ population of france is 59 million.  unemployment in
           germany is high because it is high in the former east
           germany.  you are a moron.

5/1     Did Bill Gates coin the term "Content is King"?
        Google seems to tell me he did.
        \_ It's a phrase, not a term.

4/30    My windows XP box has 512 meg memory and is only using about 300 of
        that, but it is still read/writing to pagefile.sys like mad.  Why?
        \_ presumably it is caching your file accesses, and evicting your
           "unused" application code from ram. i have 1GB on my winxp
           machine, so i just turn off swap altogether. kerneltrap had an
           ok discussion on this topic recently. it's about linux
           specifically, but the general concept applies to most os's
           these days: http://kerneltrap.org/node/view/3000
            \_ good info, tnx.  Too bad i can't set swapiness on XP the
               way they do on linux, but can you tell me how you turned
               it off?
               \_ it's under control panel | system | advanced settings
                  or something.

5/1     OpenBSD 3.5 released: http://www.openbsd.org/35.html

5/1     The 1st Amend says we can't abridge right to free political
        speech. How did this come to mean we have to air well-tuned
        propaganda on our national airways?  When did corporations begin to
        be counted as people for the purpose of free speech?  If you want to
        go the Founding Fathers route, remember that they had no clue that
        we would spawn an entire industry devoted to creating need for
        products (and, by extension, candidates).  I'm not a Communist, but
        I don't think you should get a bigger voice just because you make
        more money.
        \_ Sure, now figure out how to craft a law properly to make this happen.
           What we had passed recently clearly doesn't work for a number of
           reasons that have been stated already.  -- ilyas
           \_ It was a step in the right direction and a foot in the door.
              Let's put some pressure on that opening and wedge our way in.
              \_ Except a bad law is a step backwards, not forward.  It is
                 unlikely to be repealed, and will degrade political freedom
                 in the US.  I give no points for trying badly. -- ilyas
                 \_ I get where it didn't stop up all of the gaps, but even
                    reading back through Kai's motd, I have no idea where
                    this degradation of political freedom bit is justified.
                    \_ You haven't been reading kaismotd very carefully.
                         -- ilyas
                       \_ Sorry, o venerable Ilyas, but this wisdom remains
                          opaque to me.  Your reputation for being cranky,
                          however, is beginning to make sense.
                          \_ It's too bad people never tell me things to my
                             face (i.e. sign their names), with the possible
                             exception of Mr. Holub's famous 'you are an idiot'
                             line, although in his case I suspect he had
                             forgotten how to say anything else... -- ilyas
                             \_ you have to ask yourself why signing posts
                                is useful.  i very strongly believe that it
                                is non-useful, and that the main motivation
                                for signing is ego.  before you start blathering
                                about "accountability", let me point out that
                                first of all most people on the motd don't
                                know eacher in real life, so my knowing that
                                you are "ilyas" means nothing, and second of
                                all, signed posts are not verifiable in any
                                way and can be easily abused.  Finally,
                                signed posts lead directly to ad hominem
                                attacks which are just pointless(see above).
                                also, when people post anonymosely, they can
                                argue random sides of an issue to explore
                                different ideas rather than declare a personal
                                side of the issue and duke it out as a partisain
                                flame war.   and no, i'm not the guy giving
                                you a hard time in the above section of this
                                thread.
        \_ Is this just a freeper trying to make liburals look bad?
           \- if you ask a more pointed question, i may be able to answer
              in part. you raise too many issues. 1st amd law does distinguish
              between commercial speech and political speech ... it would be
              much tougher for a zoning law to be written that would disallow
              you to put "vote for X" sign in your front yard than "buy
              marlboro cigarettes". --psb

5/1     Any recommendations on good outdoor backpacks, which are
        small enough to be carry-on on an airline?
        \- TNF Double Take (large). i dont know if this is an issue for
           you, but you may want a lockable pack. this one is. --psb
           \-link:csua.org/u/75e

5/1     Happy Birthday to mconst!

5/1     General Suggests Abuses at Iraq Jail Are Encouraged (warm up part
        of intel interrogation)
        http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/international/middleeast/02ABUS.html
        \_ Those pictures show why there should be no women or gays
           in the military.  What is shown is those pictures is
           nothing more than hazing.